accepting blame
by Behindtheseen
Summary: it's just after Dib survives the nightmare realm and left with his lollipop. I may make more Invader Zim one shots later. absolutly no romance, or smut. please review.
1. Chapter 1

Accepting blame

Dib walks onto the lawn of his home licking a red lollypop. On it stood (mostly vampire related) Halloween décor, and a very angry looking man in a high collar lab coat and goggles tapping his foot rapidly in front of the front door. Dib recognized him in an instant and runs over to him, embracing him in a hug, "DAD!"

the man looks down in surprise as the boy hung around his knees and started crying, "It was horrible! All of them wanted my head to climb into this world. They used a lazer beam, and captured me, and I got lost and attacked..." he swaps to sobbing, "A-and you..."

he calms down a bit when he felt a calm hand stroke his hair, "There, there, son. I believe you."

Dib looks up and lets go in surprise, "Y-you do? But you never believe me."

he sighs and gets on his knees to look him in his tear filled brown eyes, "Son, I checked out your story about playing with my equipment and found that it held up. You are no more insane than usual. I am not sending you back to the Happy Boys Psychiatric ward."

Dib hugs him again, "Thanks, dad."

"But, if you touch anything in the lab without asking first, I will take away your internet privileges." he whispered into his ear.

"Yes, dad."

Gaz walks out of the front door and snags Dib's lollypop and pops it in her mouth. She heads inside, commenting, "Ugh, Raspberry."

Dib climbs over his dad and chases after her, "Gaz! That's mine!"

he flops into a sitting position and rests his jaw in his hand as his elbow dug into his leg. He sighs, "Children. Can't work with them, can't work without them, yet they steal your heart." he gets up and heads inside, "Now, kids. No fighting over candy in the living room, take it outside."


	2. bed time

Bed time

Professor Membrane looks up from his work to check the time. He stares at his clock on the back wall and muses, "Five minutes to twelve. I've got time." he stands to his feet and heads up the basement/ laboratory stairs. He enters the halls and wanders to Dib's room. He notes the light coming through the cracks and hears Dib talking to someone. He knocks. Dib says good-bye, hangs up, then quickly jumps into bed before answering, "Come in."

he opens Dib's door and walks in, "I just wanted to wish you good night, son."

Dib answers quickly, "Good night, dad." and rolls over to make it look like he was going to sleep. He opens one eye and notices his dad's shadow hadn't moved. He flips back over, "Something wrong, dad?"

Membrane walks over and pats Dib on the head before removing his large glasses, "There. You really should remove your glasses before bed, son." he sets them on the dresser and strokes Dib's head. Dib winces in pain when his hand touches a nasty bruise. Membrane pulls his hand away, then slowly checks Dib over. Dib didn't get a choice when he lifts him into the air by his sock covered foot. Membrane holds him upside-down and sees Dib's torso covered in bruises. He puts him down and shakes his head, "Tsk, tsk, tsk. You really must stop getting into fights, son. It's not very good for your health."

Dib pulls up his covers and flops onto his pillow, stating as he faced away, "It's fine."

Membrane looks sadly at him and clearly wanted to say something, but his mouth stayed shut. He pulls something from his coat pocket and lifts Dib's blanket off. Dib looks at him as he lightly pulled his thin arm and rolls onto his back without much coxing. Membrane lifts Dib's shirt and sprays a bottled mist onto his torso. He pulls it down and sits him up to spray his head. After he finished, he pats his head, "You'll be fully intact by morning."

Dib hugs him around the high collar, "Thanks, dad."

he hugs back, "You're welcome, son." they let go and Membrane leaves the room, waits a few moments outside the door, then peeks in to see Dib sleeping with a smile. He smiles, shuts the door, then heads off to Gaz's room.

He sees the door closed and knocks. Gaz opens it to see who's knocking, then smiles, "Hey, dad."

"I just wanted to wish you goodnight." he said picking her up. He enters the room and sets her on her bed. As he's petting her on the head to calm her down, he notices her pillow glowing and making noises. He pulls it out and holds the video game to her face, "Why are you playing your Game Slave at this hour?"

"Just one game with me, and I'll keep Dib out of your lab for a week." she said noticing the way he was staring at it.

He looks at her and hands it back, "Just one game." he scoots farther onto the bed and puts her in his lap. After winning the seventh game, he looks up at Gaz's clock, "Gaz's it's way past our bed time." he pulls her off, puts her under the covers, and takes the game away, "You have skool in the morning." he pats her on the head and shuts it off, "You can beat my score later. Goodnight, honey."

"Night, dad." she yawns and flips over, the cute wings on the back of her pajamas flopping to the side as she relaxed. He puts the game on her shelf and heads to his own room.

He opens his door and walks up to the queen sized bed. He pulls back the covers and climbs in, conking out the second his head touched the pillow. He awoke three hours later to something climbing onto the bed. He rolls to look at who it was. It took a moment to recognize Dib as the boy crawled and buried his head into his left arm like a scared toddler. He wraps his arm a little tighter and falls back asleep. Dib's breathing calms down and a little smile curls. Gaz entered a few minutes later and climbs onto his other arm, gaining the same treatment. She gets an idea, climbs off slightly and pulls the cord out of the wall, shutting off the alarm clock sitting on the dresser. She smiles and curls back into his arm, burying her head into his side.


	3. it's a weakness

It's a weakness

Dib heads home with a box of poop candy. He enters the house and sees Gaz sitting on the couch, "Hey, Gaz."

she growls without looking up from her video game, "What is it, Dib?"

Dib walks up to her, "Do you know where dad is?"

"He's in the lab."

he leaves, shouting back, "Thanks, Gaz!" he walks down the hall, then down the basement stairs, "Dad?"

he puts up a hand, signaling him to stop, "Careful, any vibrations could ruin the experiment!"

Dib waits until the thing on his desk explodes into blue dust before asking, "Can I come in?"

"Yes! Now what is it you wanted, son?" he asked turning around to face the smiling boy. He wipes off the blue powder.

Dib walks up to him and holds up the box, "We're selling Poop candy bars for a new air conditioner. Care to buy some?" his eyes and smile grow wider to make himself cuter. Membrane looks at the box and a wet spot grows on his high collar where his mouth was. He pulls out his wallet and asks, "How much for one box?"

"Twenty dollars." he said wiggling the box. Membrane gives him a twenty, grabs the box, sits on the floor and starts ripping open wrappers. Dib heads back to the living room and smiles at Gaz, "Guess what I did."

she looks at him with an annoyed eye, then looks back at her game, "You gave dad a box of chocolate covered sawdust."

Dib nods and stuffs the money in his pocket, "You know, dad's one of the few people I know who likes this stuff. Well, I gotta go. I'm gonna rub it in Zim's face." he turns and dorkily laughs his way out the door. Gaz climbs off the couch and heads down to the basement. She comes in and sits next to her dad, grabs a bar from the box and eats it. She comments while chewing, "Needs salt."

Membrane pats her head, rubbing in chocolate and sawdust as he comments with his mouth full, "That's my funny girl."

Zim knocks on the Membrane house an hour later. Membrane opens the door, "Ah, Dib's foreign friend. How may I help you?"

"Care to buy some poop candy? It'll help..."

before he could finish asking, Membrane whips out his wallet, "Twenty dollars for one box, correct?"

Gaz comes over and snags the money and wallet from him. They watch as she hides it in her room. He looks down at Zim, "I'm sorry, Zim, I can not buy a box."

"Surely you want to keep the world safe from harm, right?" Zim said preparing to use a VR helmet on him.

He sighs, "I doubt buying one box, no matter how good they are, is going to save the world. That is why I exist! But, if you insist." he turns around and looks around, in, and under things. He finally gives up and walks over, "Gaz has hidden the loose change. Tell you what, I'll buy a box after she's no longer holding my wallet hostage, deal?"

Zim puts the thing back in his Pak and shakes his hand, "Deal." he turns and walks off whistling. Membrane closes the door and leans against the wall, "Gaz!"

she walks up to him, "Yeah?"

he gets on his knees and begs, "Can I please have my wallet back?"

she smiles as an idea pops in her head, "Only if we go to Bloaty's Pizza on Thursday."

"I'm busy on Thursday."

she turns and starts heading back, "No deal."

he springs forward, wraps his fingers around her torso and begs profusely as she dragged him around, "Please... please... please... please?"

she stops and looks at him, stares for a good whole minute before he cracks.

"Fine." he gets up and taps a button on his goggles, "Joe, is there any way I can squeeze Bloaty's Pizza into my Thursday schedule?" after a minute, he lets go and looks at her, "Will one hour suffice?"

Gaz smiles, retrieves his wallet and hands it to him, "It'll do."

Membrane runs out of the house and stops an inch from Zim, "Is any available?"

"Why, yes." he grabs a box and trades it for a twenty. Membrane happily walks back home. Zim grabs his wagon of poop bars and looks at his robot slave, "I see why the Dib human goes home first. Now, onward my minion!"


End file.
